Philip Johnston is the CEO and Co-founder of Starcloud, a YC-backed startup building data centers in space to solve AI's growing energy crisis. After working at Goldman Sachs and consulting for Middle Eastern space agencies, Philip assembled what he calls "the 10 most kickass engineers in the world" from thousands of candidates. Their mission: create gigabit-scale orbital data centers with 4km solar arrays that could fundamentally transform computing infrastructure.In this episode, Philip reveals his journey from being rejected twice by YC to securing $21M in funding and preparing to launch Starcloud's first satellite this year. He explains why his small, elite team is developing technology to run NVIDIA's H100 chips in space (the first time in human history), their rapid 18-month satellite development cycle, and why conventional terrestrial data centers simply cannot scale to meet future AI energy demands.-----------------------------------------------Chapters:00:00 Introduction02:02 Growing Up with a YC Founder Brother04:28 Why Trading Skills Are Useless for Entrepreneurship12:13 The Starbase "Holy Sh*t" Moment That Started It All16:42 The First Angel Investor Who Changed Everything21:03 Why Redmond (Not LA) Is the Real Space Capital23:47 Y Combinator & The Viral White Paper That Got Them Roasted29:29 Over 200 VCs Reached Out: The $11M Round in Days32:35 Hiring Only 10 People: The World's Most Elite Space Team37:27 First to Fly NVIDIA H100s in Space42:20 Quick Fire Questions: Why Humanity Will Wipe Itself Out47:52 Why Your Crazy Idea Probably Sucks-----------------------------------------------Takeaways:1) Exposure to high achievers eliminates the impossible - "One thing that having an identical twin brother gives you is... it teaches you what is possible. If he can do something, there is no reason I shouldn't be able to do it." 2) Traditional finance experience is worthless for founders - "I would not recommend anybody become a trader if you want to be an entrepreneur... trading is an incredibly niche and non-transferable skill set." 3) Best founder training: startup experience beats everything - "The best path to founding a company is to go work for a startup." Philip's clear hierarchy of valuable pre-founder experience places startups at the top, followed by management consulting, with VC and trading trailing far behind.4) Lead with your most audacious vision, not incremental steps - Philip's biggest fundraising regret was initially pitching short-term vision: satellite edge computing instead of his revolutionary vision for orbital data centers.5) American angels wire money immediately; Europeans wait for others - "American angels are like absolute godsend because they sign and wire on the same day... in Europe they're like, who else is in?" The cultural difference in investor behavior meant Starcloud's first check came from an American who decided independently without needing social proof.6) Move your company to the talent, not where "space companies go" - "Everybody we want to hire lives in Redmond, Washington... for satellites, Redmond's like the global capital." Philip relocated from aerospace hub El Segundo when he discovered 90% of satellites were actually designed and built in Redmond.7) Hire slowly: interview thousands to find your 10 perfect engineers - "We spent an enormous amount of time interviewing and not hiring lots of people... we went through about 10,000 CVs." Starcloud's elite 10-person team resulted from an extraordinarily selective process that rejected thousands of qualified candidates.8) "Build it and see" beats "spend months in CAD" - "We are very much a build it and see culture rather than a spend six months in CAD and see culture." Philip's team prioritizes physical prototyping and testing over extensive theoretical design, accelerating their development cycle dramatically.

Lukas Werling is the CEO and co-founder of ISPTech, a German space startup developing green propellants that eliminate the need for hazmat suits and could slash space propulsion costs by 75%. The company has in a short time secured €2 million in funding with three orbital missions lined up for flight later this year.

In this episode of Rockets and Radars, Lukas shares his journey from a mechanical engineering student rejected from aerospace programs to spending 14 years at DLR (Europe's premier rocket testing facility) before selling his motorbike to raise startup capital. From supervising thousands of rocket engine hot firings to managing Europe's most unique test facility, from watching technicians in hazmat suits handle toxic propellants to developing fuel safe enough to handle with bare hands, Lukas explains how patient research and perfect timing created a company that had paying customers before it even officially launched.

Want to get hired in ISPTech? https://tally.so/r/mOq9b7

Want to invest in ISPTech? https://tally.so/r/nGE4qp

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Chapters:

(00:00) Introduction

(03:09) Getting Rejected

(08:00) Breaking into DLR

(14:34) Finding the Perfect Co-founder

(21:01) The Spin-Out Decision

(30:32) Incorporating with €25K: Selling the Motorbike

(35:56) Getting First Customers Before Incorporation

(44:36) Funding Journey: €2M Pre-Seed

(51:17) Future Vision: Space Infrastructure & Mobility

(54:34) Quick Fire Round: Biggest Mistakes & Key Decisions

(58:52) Advice for Researchers

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Takeaways:

1) Persistence beats rejection - keep asking until someone says yes. "I talked to my professor during his lectures. I went to his office several times... he was always saying, yeah, I will reach out." Lukas got into DLR by repeatedly asking his professor for an introduction until he finally made the call.

2) Technology maturity trumps perfect business plans for deep tech - "We had like years and years of testing at the test bench... many companies didn't have those possibilities." Having proven technology from 14 years of research gave them customer confidence that business plans alone couldn't provide.

3) Know your customers' pain points before you spin out - "We knew some spacecraft manufacturers, some people... what their issues are, what their pain points are." Don't guess at market needs - work directly with your future customers to understand their problems first.

4) Hire people you've worked with for years, not strangers - "The first people we hired were from this... student team... We know them for years." Your early team should be people whose work quality and character you've personally witnessed over time.

5) Speed beats bureaucracy when markets are moving fast - "We can decide, we can make progress as a company much, much faster... people from DLR approaching us, ah guys, can you do it so fast?" Startup agility is your biggest advantage over large institutions.

6) Never start work without a written contract, no matter who asks - "The biggest mistake I made is to start some work... without a written contract... it never materialized." Even trusted contacts can disappear - always get agreements in writing before starting any work.

7) Build your network before you need it - "We had our network. Of course, we knew some spacecraft manufacturers... this was an advantage." Relationships built over years become customers and partners when you're ready to commercialize.

8) Focus on customer contracts, not just grant funding - "We need, just frame contracts... As a company you want customers and not additional grant funding." Paying customers validate your business better than government grants ever will.

9) Plan backwards from your vision to find the first step - "You want to build this huge power plant... plan backwards... solve one issue after the other." Break dreams into manageable technical problems you can solve sequentially.

Sebastian Klaus (CEO and co-founder of ATMOS Space Cargo) went from a 17-year-old watching SpaceShipOne make history to building Europe's fastest-moving space reentry company from prototype to flight under 12 months.

In this episode of Rockets and Radars, Sebastian reveals how ATMOS went from nearly going bankrupt in 2022 to successfully demonstrating inflatable heat shield technology from a small plane over the South Atlantic. From 14 years of military service to convincing investors to put €10M+ into the "most advanced technology in spaceflight history," this is the raw story of Europe's race to build space sovereignty—and how ATMOS could become the "FedEx for space."

Want to get hired in ATMOS? https://tally.so/r/wvalVD

Want to invest in ATMOS? https://tally.so/r/wLjeBp

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Chapters:

(00:00) Introduction

(02:49) From 17-Year-Old Dreamer to Military Officer

(10:23) Building the Dream Team: Finding Co-founders

(19:32) Early Prototyping & Technical Validation

(22:44) The Dark Year: 2022 Crisis & Near Bankruptcy

(29:58) The Funding Gauntlet: Raising €10M+ Seed Round

(38:45) Lori Garver & EIC Grant: €13M European Bet

(44:20) Phoenix One Mission: Historic Flight Success

(49:00) Defence Pivot: Ukraine War & Drone Applications

(54:39) Quick Fire Round & Hiring Philosophy

(58:21) Advice for Young Founders

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Takeaways:

1) Study the fundamental bottlenecks of your future industry before it exists. "I did my bachelor's on atmospheric reentry and my master's on reusable rocket engines. For me it was very clear - you need atmospheric reentry technology and you need to be able to reuse those things."

2) Recruit co-founders when they're at career peaks but facing industry decline. "On Christmas Eve, I called a world-class engineer who had just launched a $10 billion space telescope. I said 'Your rocket program is being shut down. If you want to quit, now is the time.'" Target potential co-founders when their current path has obvious dead ends.

3) Physical prototypes unlock funding that slide decks never will. "We dropped a 1:10 scale prototype from a helicopter to test our inflatable heat shield. It worked on the first try and became a very good marketing tool for customers and investors."

4) Work second jobs to fund your startup - investors notice the sacrifice. "My co-founders and I were all working second jobs to keep the company afloat. We didn't pay ourselves a single euro in salary. Founders sacrificing personal income signals total commitment to investors.

5) Find technologies where physics gives you 10X advantages over incumbents. "With inflatable technology, we can bring back 10X more cargo from space." Look for fundamental physical constraints that new approaches can completely break.

6) Pivot when customers give you contracts, not just compliments. "Once we switched to building our own spacecraft and selling to pharmaceutical companies, we felt real customer pull. Companies immediately gave us letters of intent and MOUs." Polite interest isn't market validation - signed agreements are.

7) Fly to the middle of nowhere for your company's biggest moments. "I flew 700 kilometers over the Atlantic Ocean in a small plane with Starlink duct-taped to the window to watch our spacecraft return from orbit." Critical company moments require founder presence, not remote management.

8) Build operational flexibility into everything, not just your product. "We had to completely replan our space mission weeks before launch when our landing zone changed from the Indian Ocean to the South Atlantic." External changes will break rigid operations - adaptability determines survival.

9) Dual-use technology can 10X your addressable market overnight. "The same technology that returns pharmaceutical experiments from space can deliver drones anywhere on Earth within hours." Defence applications can massively expand your total addressable market.

Stefan Roebel transformed from 12 years in the German military and a decade scaling Amazon operations to co-founding Europe's largest autonomous military vehicle production facility in just 3 years.

In this episode of Rockets and Radars, Stefan reveals how ARX Robotics (ARX) went from a university research project to life-saving robots supporting Ukrainian troops in under 3 years. From a tired Thursday dinner where "nothing existed" to raising €40M+ and building combat-proven systems, this is the raw story of Europe's race to build its defense future before it's too late—and how ARX could become Europe's next defencetech unicorn.

Want to get hired in ARX? https://tally.so/r/3qqAYd

Want to invest in ARX? https://tally.so/r/mZA6Ga

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Chapters:

(00:00) Introduction

(01:57) Personal Background & Joining ARX as 4th Co-founder

(07:49) Project A Venture Studio Program

(12:40) The First Prototype

(19:37) Pivot to Modular Approach & ARX Framework

(25:45) Customer Acquisition Strategy

(31:27) Seed Round: €9 Million & NATO Innovation Fund

(39:54) Launching Mithra OS

(42:19) Series A: How we raised €31 Million

(46:24) Vision: Becoming a European Defence Prime

(50:35) Advice for Defence Tech Founders

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Takeaways:

1) Venture studios beat accelerators for hardware companies

"A venture studio is a level two accelerator. They assign a founder associate, shared resources like hiring, legal contacts - they have all the tools a classical VC has plus operational background." This mindset was exactly what ARX needed for complex hardware development.

2) Build your first prototype to fundraise, not to sell

"Investors got super excited because they saw a physical product after a decade of SaaS presentations." Hardware founders need something tangible to overcome investor skepticism.

3) Pitch deck hell is inevitable - embrace the chaos

"We had 40 iterations of the first pitch deck.

There are 500 different opinions on pitch decks, especially for hardware. Don't fight the feedback loop - use each iteration to find investors who actually understand your market and hardware.

4) Win credibility through real competitions, not demos

"We won the visitors award at Estonian autonomy trials. That was the first time we got exposure to other robotics companies." Public trials validate your tech against established competitors.

5) Pivot from single-use to modular approach

"We found most robots are single-use. But the change of situation is so rapid you need a new solution every five minutes." Undefined markets require maximum flexibility.

6) Start with R&D contracts, scale to procurement later

"We used smaller R&D programs to finance development of 1-10 robots. The procurement is still a tanker - we're the speedboats getting money to figure out new processes." Use innovation programs as stepping stones to larger contracts.

7) Hire military experience locally for each country expansion"My military English is bad. We're replicating what we did in Germany by hiring local teams with military experience to understand customer needs and adapt our system." Defence is hyper-local - you need native military speakers.

8) Series A requires proof, not just vision"Series A is proof of concept done, show us traction, pipeline, forward-looking revenue. It's more data-driven, unromantic. They need conviction the money scales an already working machine." Move from founder-market fit to product-market fit evidence.

9) Speed of iteration determines battlefield winners"Fast iteration cycles will be the difference maker. The current speed of change is mission critical to battlefield success. Whoever iterates fastest wins."

10) Pick investors who understand B2G

]We had investors with SaaS mindset asking about recurring revenues. Find investors who've lived your customer's world, not just scaled software companies.

Mitch Hunter-Scullion is the CEO and founder of Asteroid Mining Corporation (AMC), Europe's first asteroid mining company with operations across three continents and partnership with Japanese lab that built HAYABUSA (actual asteroid missions).

In this episode of Rockets and Radars, Mitch shares his journey from a 21-year-old university student writing a dissertation on asteroid mining to building a space robotics company with operations across three continents. From registering the company name on a whim to appearing on BBC World News, from failed crowdfunding campaigns to million-pound investment rounds, Mitch explains how he transformed an "impossible dream" into reality. He discusses developing climbing robots for both terrestrial industrial applications and future space missions, navigating cultural differences between UK and Japanese space ecosystems, and how persistence through skepticism led to collaborations with Tohoku University and the Japanese space industry.

Want to get hired in AMC? https://tally.so/r/wbX6Go

Want to invest in AMC? https://tally.so/r/npXk1b

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Chapters:

(00:00) Introduction

(02:05) From University to Company

(07:00) Credibility Crisis: When Everyone Thinks You're Mad

(11:09) BBC World Breakthrough

(14:24) The Crowdfunding Disaster: Why It Failed

(18:40) Extreme Bootstrap: Living on £500 for Years

(22:51) Japan Partnership: Random Beer to Tohoku University

(33:22) Product Pivot: Satellites to Climbing Robots Strategy

(39:00) First Million: The Institutional Investment Reality

(47:48) Near-Term vs Ultimate Mission: Balancing Revenue & Vision

(58:23) Fire Round Questions

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Takeaways:

1) Say yes to every conversation, especially early on"If someone wants to talk, you always talk... Random emails and coffee meetings led to Mitch's biggest partnerships and investment opportunities.

2) One major media appearance can instantly establish credibility "When I first went on BBC News, people were like, okay, so I actually see something's real here." Early founders desperately need credibility - prioritize getting one big media hit over many small ones.

3) Crowdfunding teaches you what real business looks like"Projects are projects, but business is business. Business is about creating a product and being able to generate profits." Failed crowdfunding forced Mitch to understand the difference between cool projects and viable businesses.

4) Extreme frugality can extend your runway for years"I didn't have any more than £500 in my bank account... overnight buses from Glasgow to London."

5) Academic partnerships are the easiest way into new markets"Academic partnerships are a really good way for startups to get their foot into a new market." Universities provide low-risk entry, cultural guidance, and credibility in foreign countries.

6) Build sustainable revenue before attempting your moonshot"Slow and steady wins the race... we don't approve of the get to asteroids or go bust model." Terrestrial customers fund your space dreams and provide resilience against failures.

7) Design once, sell twice: space tech for Earth applications"We always knew there were going to be industrial applications... synergistic development opportunities." Every space technology should have an Earth market - maritime, nuclear, mining industries pay well and prove your tech.

8) Investors care more about timelines than technical perfection." Investors really wanted to see timelines... The quicker you can have something that you can demo, the better." Show progress and momentum over perfect engineering - demos beat specifications.

9) Prepare financially and mentally for inevitable space failures"Space is incredibly difficult... when things go wrong, you need to be resilient." Unlike software, space has catastrophic single-point failures - build multiple revenue streams and mental toughness before attempting orbital missions.

Adel Haddoud is the CEO and co-founder of Infinite Orbits, a space servicing startup that has raised €12 million in Series A funding.

In this episode of Rockets and Radars, Adel shares his journey from aerospace engineer and serial entrepreneur to building the world's first commercial nanosatellite in geostationary orbit. From surviving month-to-month during the pandemic to landing contracts with major players like Intelsat and the US Air Force, Adel explains how persistence and customer focus helped them achieve what many called impossible - repairing and servicing satellites in space.

Want to get hired in Infinite Orbits? https://tally.so/r/w2gzAe

Want to invest in Infinite Orbits? https://tally.so/r/3xLEDd

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Chapters:

(00:00) Introduction

(02:06) From Investor to Founder to CEO

(08:31) Finding First Customer

(22:06) Surviving the Early Years: Month-to-Month Funding

(29:37) Winning EIC Accelerator

(36:37) Building Step-by-Step: Product Evolution Strategy

(42:23) Fundraising Reality: Why We Are Always Raising

(47:12) Hiring for Personality Over Process

(50:11) Going Global While Staying European

(51:37) Fire Round: Rejections, Competition & Founder Advice

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Takeaways:

1) Follow customers, not personal preferences

"We are quite commercially driven. So we follow where our customers are." Infinite Orbits moved from Singapore to Europe because that's where their technology suppliers, talent, and major customers were located, not for personal convenience.

2) Adapt your product to what customers actually want

"We adapted to what customer wanted... They convinced us that it's good to go step by step." Instead of trying to do full satellite life extension immediately, they built simpler stepping-stone products that customers were willing to pay for and risk.

3) Persistence beats perfection in early sales

"A lot of people say, yeah, this is great, but this is so difficult." Adel's team kept explaining their vision-based rendezvous technology until people understood its potential, despite initial skepticism.

4) Never allow yourself to think you might fail

"I never thought we will not make it... Once you do, then it goes downhill. It's like a domino effect."

5)Target the biggest market, not the easiest one

"90 billion dollar was worth of assets in GEO orbit and less than 10 billion dollar worth of assets in LEO... it made sense to do servicing to something that costs 300 million euros."

6) EIC Accelerator is a game-changer for European startups

"That literally took us from one league to another league... That puts you on stage, really, that attracts investors." Winning EIC with only 4-6% success rate provided credibility and matching investment that unlocked their Series A.

7) Hire for personality and natural motivation first

"We are hiring for the personality most of the time... If a person is not naturally motivated by space and by our technology and by being part of the team, we don't hire them." Cultural fit and genuine passion matter more than perfect credentials.

8) "Never take NO for an answer" in fundraising

"The natural answer for a VC is like, oh, I'm not sure. Let's wait... So you just need to keep pushing and understand why you're pushing." Treat fundraising like sales - analyze why investors say no and work to convert them.

9) Every space startup should stop pretending being great

"Do not pretend. Get the truth from customers. Don't lie to yourself... Only a customer tells you if it's great or not." Adel's core philosophy: customer validation is the only truth that matters, not internal assumptions.

10) Collaboration beats going alone in European space

"Space is too big too difficult for everybody... if you're smart enough to collaborate, then you're open enough to collaborate." Their willingness to partner with companies across 17 European countries helped them win grants and build supply chains.

Kenneth Skorpen is the co-founder and CEO of BlinkTroll Robotics, a defence tech startup that has raised €1.5 million just a few days ago.

In this episode of Rockets and Radars, Kenneth shares his journey from a decade in Norwegian special forces to building moving target systems that increase soldiers' hit accuracy from 10% to 80%. He reveals how his frustration with predictable static training targets during military exercises led him to start tinkering in his garage, eventually founding a company that now serves over 10,000 soldiers and police across Europe.

Want to get hired in BlinkTroll? https://tally.so/r/3ErqPB

Want to invest in BlinkTroll? https://tally.so/r/nrbDl2
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Chapters:

(00:00) Introduction

(02:22) Kenneth's Personal Background & Military Experience

(08:16) Transition from Oil & Gas to Defence Tech

(11:01) Finding Co-Founder Øystein

(19:40) Moving from Norway to Denmark

(28:31) Hiring & Building an International Team

(34:39) Fundraising Journey & Investor Alignment

(43:21) Product Strategy & Future Vision

(49:49) Fire Round: European Defence Industry Controversies

(54:28) Military Procurement Across Different Nations

(58:52) Can Europe Compete with American Defence Tech?

(01:02:06) Final Reflections on Training & Purpose

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Takeaways:

1) Military experience provides unique market insight but isn't everything: Kenneth's special forces background gave him credibility and problem awareness, but passion and energy matter more than perfect credentials.

2) Start building while employed to reduce financial pressure: Kenneth developed his moving target systems while working in oil and gas, avoiding the stress of needing immediate revenue to survive.

3) Market pull beats technology push every time: Kenneth only founded BlinkTroll in December 2022 when customers were actively requesting his systems, not when the technology was ready.

4) Find co-founders who complement, don't duplicate your skills: "If there was Kenneth number two, we'd be a terrible team. We'd be fighting over the same drawings." Kenneth handles technical development while Øystein manages sales and business operations - zero overlap, maximum coverage.

5) Customer tolerance reveals product-market fit strength:"The product was pretty sh*tty to begin with... But our customer saw the value even in a flawed product and continued supporting it." When customers endure bugs because the core value is essential, you've found something worth building.

6) Geographic arbitrage can unlock growth: Most of our customers were right across the border." Moving BlinkTroll from Norway to Denmark in 2023 provided better ecosystem support, customer proximity, and cultural alignment with defense priorities.

7) Hire for spark, not just skills: "If you have 10 interviews, there's maybe one person who's got spark in their eyes... not necessarily one with the best education or the best skillsets." Energy and excitement predict performance better than credentials when building early-stage teams.

8) Align with existing procurement needs, don't create new ones: "There is nobody with power or influence in the military procurement program itself by anything based on their own wishes or desires. They simply act upon what is being requested from them." Find out what the military is already looking to buy and align your product with those existing requirements, rather than trying to create new demand.

9) Investor alignment matters: "Do you share my values?... Kenneth turned down higher offers from investors who didn't align with BlinkTroll's mission during their fundraising process.

10) Simplest path to revenue wins over strategic perfection: "What's the shortest way to the money? The simplest solution that gets you revenue as fast as possible." Focus on products that generate cash quickly, then use that revenue to fund longer-term strategic initiatives for sustainable growth.